Guava City

10 - 1/2

When I came back home, I was alone again. I did look for food but did not have much left, only a piece of sweet bread that my mum hid behind our clothes in a big cardboard box near the cooking fire. Looking back now I see that safety was not a priority in the family.

I sat in front of the door looking out to see if my uncle was coming that day as normally. When I saw him coming from a distance, I finished my bread very quickly so he would not see and hit me saying that I was hiding food from him. He approached me laughing and smiling, a very scary and disgusting scene.

'My Princess! How was school today?' He asked. 'I bought you something delicious as you are very skinny.' He handed me a bag of sweets and pastries. 'Eat it all.' He said while sitting by my side. I smiled back. 'Did your father tell you? that he will allow you to come to live with me. We will be so happy.' He said while very excited, smiling and covering his mouth, then I realised that he knew that his mouth was disgusting.

'Really Uncle?' I said looking happy. I did start jumping and saying phrases that he wanted to hear.

'I will buy you food every day my princess, as I want you to give me kids too.' I guess he really wanted that, he was over his 40s and I don't think he has never had a woman that was not because he was not raping them. Looking back, I am sure that he had mental issues. Mental paralysis as he would keep repeating things over and over and stuttering all the time.

'Should we have it with water?' I suggested. He agreed. 'I went and grabbed a cup of water for him and one for me. For him I did put some fruit flavoured powder as well, to make it sweeter, he would never notice the flowers that I put on it as well. It took me only a few minutes. I handed it to him, and he thanked me for trying to look like a happy couple. I smiled, he drank it all.

'It is hot today, what about we go to the water? Must be very refreshing now. And we can play there.' I suggested. Around the place we lived had many rivulets, and a big river as well.

'Yeah, I like to play.' He was excited. We went walking on foot.

It took a few minutes from our house to the next rivulet.

'It is very hot.' He said while sweating a lot. His eyes were getting tired as well. He looked as if he could not stand for even one second more.

'Just a few steps more.' I said while holding his hands, he was almost fainting.

Few more steps. He was down. I had to carry him to the water, pushing him over the small stones around the rivulet, struggling with his heavy weight, but in less than twenty minutes it was done. Did put him inside the water, got him deeper. He was sleeping. I pushed him inside the water, and without fighting back he let the water go inside him. All I could think about was that amazing feeling I had, of letting him go when I was sure that he was full enough. I left him there. I went out. I looked back, the water was slowly carrying him away. I went back home. If nothing stops him, he soon would be in the big river, with the piranhas, so his body would never be found.

'Where were you?' Asked my father when saw me returning. "I went to see if I could find my mother in the church. She wasn't there." I said while trying to hide a bit of my shorts that were still wet, even with the burning sun that was up, it was around 2pm. It was a very hot day. We had tropical weather, even though almost every day we had rain at 4pm that lasted over one hour, it would dry very quickly. I looked to the sky, and I knew that very soon a long rain was to come and clean up the rubbish that I left behind.

'Alright. Go make me a drink. New coffee.' He said with a very bossy tone.

I went to set the cooking fire. Did put the water in the small aluminium pan and waited until it was boiling. I dropped his coffee grounds; I added four big spoons of white sugar on it. I got the whole pot, one mug and gave it to him. Sitting in front of the small house in the shadow of a mango tree, he got biscuits from his pocket and had it while sipping his coffee. I went back to the cooking fire to cook beans, as the cooking fire was set. My mum returned later with fishes.

We had dinner almost at night, about 6pm. I helped my mum to grill the fishes and cook rice. The fish was salty. I dropped some fresh lime on it and got fresh chillies that my mum had been growing with other herbs near our house. While we were cooking my father was playing with my two youngest siblings, two sisters. They laughed together. He turned on the small radio and played some music. That day he was not drunk. We did not have electricity, only lamps with kerosene oil instead of candles. My siblings were too small to understand how I felt, and why I had to erase him from our lives. My mum for a second smiled, as if that scene would happen more than once. When I look back, I think that death told him that it was coming to him, because that day is the only day that I remember seeing him smiling without being drunk and raping my mother. He was able to leave a good memory to my two sisters. I am glad he did so.